Larry Nassar, right, listens near defense attorney Matthew Newberg as Judge Janice Cunningham sentences Nassar at Eaton County Circuit Court in Charlotte, Mich., Monday, Feb. 5, 2018. The former Michigan State University sports-medicine and USA Gymnastics doctor received 40 to 125 years for three first degree criminal sexual abuse charges related to assaults that occurred at Twistars, a gymnastics facility in Dimondale. Nassar has also been sentenced to 60 years in prison for three child pornography charges in federal court and between 40 to 175 years in Ingham County for seven counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Fifty-one women and girls are suing the U.S. Olympic Committee, its officers, directors and national governing board for failing to prevent sexual abuse by former coaches and national team doctor Larry Nassar, who is in prison for sexually abusing gymnasts.

One plaintiff is a Colorado resident who accused Nassar of sexually assaulting her in 2001 at the Karolyi Ranch, a former gymnastics team training center in Texas. The victim, who was identified only as “Jane L.W. Doe,” was 15 and a U.S. national team gymnast when she sought treatment for a back injury, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Colorado because the U.S. Olympic Committee is headquartered in Colorado Springs. Four of the defendants — all former officers of the USOC — are Colorado residents. The lawsuit is asking for an unspecified amount in damages, and the plaintiffs are demanding reform and accountability to protect athletes.

The 134-page lawsuit claimed those who could have prevented the abuse of young female athletes concealed it, were negligent with reports and investigations, and allowed for the abuse to continue. The lawsuit asserts that to this day, the USOC and its directors are not taking proper measures against employees or representatives who are accused of sexual abuse.

Kimberly Dougherty, a Boston attorney representing the victims, said this lawsuit differs from previous ones in that it shows the abuse has been going on for decades and not just by Nassar but by coaches, too.

“People are starting to come forward and feel empowered to take back their voices and do something about it,” she said.

Dougherty called these accounts “the tip of the iceberg” of the problem of sexual abuse in the sports industry, and one that not only affects gymnasts.

She hopes the lawsuit will spur change and institutional reform to protect future athletes. Congress tried through mandatory reporting acts, she said, but the abuse continued.

The lawsuit recounts painful and graphic stories of how Nassar penetrated gymnasts’ vaginas, often with their parents nearby, in the name of medical treatment. The Colorado victim said that is exactly what happened to her when she saw him for treatment of a back injury.

A majority of the plaintiffs were minors at the time of the abuse and some are still minors. The youngest athlete listed in the lawsuit was 8. The abuse occurred between the 1990s and 2018, and some athletes experienced repeated assaults for years, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit provides details about Title IX and constitutional rights violations as well as failures to report abuse accusations that are required by the 2018 federal Safe Sport Act. The complaint stated that negligence by those in authority to warn athletes about prior complaints and to train and educate employees and contractors furthered the abuse. It accused USOC members of deceit and fraud for protecting Nassar and other abusers.

Mark Jones, vice president of communications for the USOC, said the agency couldn’t comment on pending litigation.

Since the 1980s, 290 Olympic coaches were convicted of sexual abuse against minors, the lawsuit said. Cases of abuse of young athletes had grabbed headlines since the 1990s, most recently with the detailed accounts of Nassar’s victims in The Indianapolis Star, first published in 2016.

“The (U.S. Olympic Committee), its Officers and Directors and their (National Governing Boards) have known for decades that sexual predators and pedophiles are attracted to the occupation of coaching young athletes yet failed to take effective action to detect and eliminate from Olympic sports those adults who posed an unreasonable risk of harm to the young athletes they were duty bound to protect,” the lawsuit said.

Individual officers and directors of the USOC are named in the lawsuit, including some who resigned or were fired, for failing to act on complaints about abuse.

The majority of direct sexual abuse allegations are lodged against Nassar, although six coaches also are named for abusing gymnasts.

For example, a gymnast informed USA Gymnastics that she had been abused by her coach, David Byrd, in 1998 when she was 12. She did not report the abuse until she was older. Byrd was criminally investigated.

He ultimately was convicted in 2009 of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, unlawful criminal restraint and criminal threats. The victim, named as “Jane K.B. Doe,” twice told USA Gymnastics about the abuse and Byrd’s conviction. But the gymnastics association did not take action or warn other gymnasts of Byrd’s conviction, saying they had no authority because he no longer was a member, the lawsuit said.

Byrd continued coaching at his wife’s gym and was not on the USA Gymnastics permanently ineligible list when the woman complained again in March 2018, according to the lawsuit.

“That did nothing to help the unassuming children to which he had access to at his wife’s gym,” the lawsuit said.

Byrd recently was added to the ineligible list, the lawsuit said.

The Nassar case shocked sports fans and others because of the number of female athletes he abused and the length of time he was able to do it.

Women and girls waited to come forward because they were deceived into thinking Nassar’s treatments were medically necessary, and because of shame, lack of understanding as young children and post-traumatic stress, the lawsuit said.

Others didn’t realize the extent of the USOC’s coverup until an independent investigation issued a report on Dec. 10, 2018, on the abuse, according to the lawsuit.

Related Articles

The lawsuit alleged that if any of the patients put up a fight, they were told that they wouldn’t be able to further their careers without the treatment. It also stated that Nassar neglected to treat the young athletes for their actual ailments, leading some to quit gymnastics entirely because of the lack of medical care.

Saja Hindi is a breaking news reporter for The Denver Post. She previously worked at the Fort Collins Coloradoan and the Loveland Reporter-Herald, and before that in print and radio in North Carolina. During that time, she's covered politics, social issues, law enforcement and public safety, with a focus on accountability.

Prosecutors and investigators on Friday detailed the rising tensions between the two neighbors, a combative relationship that ended with the fatal shooting of the 46-year-old Cunningham, an assistant high school principal in Aurora and former University of Colorado football star.